Movies like Essence
The best movies like Essence are Things to Come (2016), Maelström (2000) and The Last Woman (1976). If Essence hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWaking Life (2001)7.5/10 from 995 votes
- NewestWinter Ceremony (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThings to Come (2016)Also in French
Things to Come (2016)
Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. One day, Nathalie’s husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With freedom thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaelström (2000)
A young woman's life spirals into chaos after she is involved in a hit-and-run accident. Then she encounters a mysterious man named Evian who offers her an opportunity for redemption. Narrated by a fish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Woman (1976)
Psychological drama of the compelling relationship between a young French engineer and the girl he takes into his home after his wife has left him with their baby son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChaos (2001)
A bourgeois couple, modern yet conventional. One night by accident, a young prostitute barges into their lives. Hounded down, beaten up, threatened, she will continue to struggle, with the help of a well off lady, first for her survival-her resurrection-then for her dignity and freedom. Stormy encounters for everyone involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMindwalk (1991)
On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long Absence (1961)
Therese, a café owner, mourns the mysterious disappearance of her husband sixteen years earlier. A tramp arrives in the town and she believes him to be her husband. But he is suffering from amnesia and she tries to bring back his memory of earlier times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOut of Love (2025)
When Jeanne, a meticulous insurance assessor, is suddenly left to care for her estranged sister’s two children after their mother vanishes, her carefully ordered life begins to unravel. Confronted with unexpected responsibilities, she must balance the fragile task of earning the children’s trust while also tending to her own relationship with her girlfriend, who struggles to adjust to Jeanne’s new role. As grief, uncertainty, and shifting loyalties mount, Jeanne finds herself redefining what family and love truly mean.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Sleeps (1974)
A young student decides to have no more interaction with the world than is needed to minimally sustain life. His increasingly automaton-like behavior is coupled with a strange clarity of insight about the world around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAd Vitam (2025)
When he and his pregnant wife are attacked in their home, a former elite agent becomes trapped in a deadly manhunt tied to his own painful past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSaint Omer (2022)
A novelist attends the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, her own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused is gradually revealed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStowaway (2021)
A three-person crew on a mission to Mars faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Mouthful of Air (2021)
Julie is a new mom and children's book author, who escapes into the bright Crayola-colored world of her creation in order to leave behind the darkness caused by her post-partum depression.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Christmas Carol (1997)
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecrets of a Soul (2012)
Secrets of a Soul: Margarethe, Creator of bizarre sculptures! Night club dancer? Mad woman? Victim of an occult conspiracy?! Dark menaces steal her soul and organs. Though dead they keep her alive...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Waking Life (2001)
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPhilosophy of the Porch (2026)
A dedicated young woman serving as her family's primary financial provider finds her matrimonial aspirations permanently derailed when she uncovers a debilitating secret: their ancestral home was pawned by her late father to finance her eldest brother's opulent wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coming SoonMovies like thisI Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel (2014)
On the first day of shooting, James Franco, David Shields, and Caleb Powell throw out the script when a real-life argument breaks out between the three of them about what can and can't be used in the film. Shields and Franco browbeat Powell to sacrifice everything for the sake of the film; Powell threatens to leave; Shields feels guilty about betraying Powell; and Franco wants Shields and Powell to confess all for the sake of the film. A debate, nearly to the death, about life and art.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Coolest Person In The World (2026)
Attempting to piece together the memories of his recent breakup with Sasha —a quietly perceptive, under-confident fellow writer—Nikhil revisits their most tumultuous, mundane, and tender moments to understand what went wrong... and to soothe his unsettling descent into existential delirium.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Addiction (1995)
A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter Ceremony (2026)
A long-divorced Chinese couple reunites in Texas for their daughter’s college graduation. The mother stays in the daughter’s small apartment, while the father returns each night to a hotel room of his own. The daughter drifts between her parents and her own thoughts. At times, they appear to be a family. After years of absence, what remains between them goes unspoken, as the father keeps his distance, lingering nearby.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mera Naam Joker (1970)
Raju faces many hurdles and disappointments in matters of the heart throughout his life. But as a clown in a circus, he tries to make his audience laugh at the cost of his own sorrows. Along the way, Raju loves and loses, but must always keep a smile on his face because, in the words of his circus manager, "The show must go on."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisResonances (2022)
"Resonances" is an abstract journey that invites diverse interpretations. For some, it’s the tale of an ant that delved too deep, for others, a puppet seeking freedom. The narrative evolves with the viewer, offering no single path but rather a multitude of meanings. Free and autonomous, "Resonances" challenges you to explore with your mind and question with your soul. Only through personal reflection will the answers reveal themselves, making the experience uniquely yours.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Essence?
The closest matches to Essence are Things to Come (2016), Maelström (2000) and The Last Woman (1976). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Essence?
Start with Things to Come (2016), the closest match to Essence.
What is the highest-rated movie like Essence?
Waking Life (2001), rated 7.5/10 by 995 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Essence?
Winter Ceremony (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Essence?
Yes: Things to Come (2016), Maelström (2000) and The Last Woman (1976).
How are movies similar to Essence chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Essence, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.